Let’s support TMEV

The REVA electric car which has been introduced in Bhutan since 2009 didn’t attract us. Though eco-friendly and enables zero emission driving, there are many challenges associated with EVs. This car can run only 80 km for a battery, a normal charge takes 8 hours, and its maximum speed is 80 km/h. That’s why people still prefer conventional combustion-engine vehicles. 

  

A new Hope: A new hope is born as the Thunder Motors Electric Vehicles (TMEV), a Bhutanese based company will be launching its first batch of electric cars (half and full body cars, SUVs) by the end of this October. Price will range from Nu 400,000 to Nu 1.4 million. Interestingly, the company will also manufacture larger vehicles.

According to the Managing Director with the TMEV, the vehicles have been designed to suit Bhutanese conditions and are eco-friendly. The components of the vehicles are imported from other countries: controllers are purchased from the USA, batteries from China, and body parts from Japan and the motors from Germany. This time the vehicle is finally assembled in china; however, from next year the company is hopeful to start assembling in Bhutan. 

Battery and its durability: The fully charged vehicle will run between 200-500 KMs. It will take about six hours to charge batteries at home, while at charging stations it will take only 10 minutes. 

Reduce the country’s dependency on Indian Rupees: The introduction of eclectic cars would drastically decrease fuel dependency in the country and cut down the fuel imports by 50 %. Today the RGOB spends about Nu 5 billions on fuel import every year. 

Cost effective: An individual have to spend only Nu 35 to Nu 70 every month charging the battery. Around 40 to 80 units of electricity will be enough to last a month. 

Conversion: Interestingly the cars with combustion engines can be converted as electric cars by replacing the engines with electric motors. The conversion cost for larger vehicles range from Nu 400,000 to Nu 500,000, while smaller vehicles can get it done for Nu 100,000 to Nu 200,000. Two wheelers will cost Nu 40,000. It will take between five to 20 days for the conversion process to complete depending on the size. 

Charging stations: TMEV will build charging stations at certain locations, as the plans have already mapped out as to how the station would function. 

Challenges: Lack of awareness among the public and also at the policy making level. Bhutanese businessmen are very skeptic to invest in electric vehicles. Support from the government is very imperative in the initial three years as people are reluctant to pay for conversion.

With the availability of cheap electricity and the national policy that emphasizes on environmental conservation and the country’s dependency on Indian oil, this eco-friendly project initiated by TMEV should be supported by the people and our government. The government have to provide unwavering supports by providing financial helps and exempting it from import duties and other taxes.

References: Bhutan Times, ThimphuTech.com

To My King and Queen

All my fellow bloggers have composed poems, lyrics, appreciations and sonnets to the royal couple and they have beautifully posted on their blogs. I felt that I wouldn't be doing justice until I compose a poem of praises to our majesties. And I tried really hard to compose, but all in vain. I realized then I can never compose poem. But I have for you a beautifully crafted poem by Tshering Tashi, a class XI student of Punakha HSS (which I have taken it out from Nobu's blog, teacher). Read it below: 

The moment I heard the news,

I emptied my heart, and filled it with happiness,

For I could not help but feel overwhelmed,

For I could not help but feel sheer joy.

Your Highness Ashi Jetsun Pema,
Thank you for making my King happy.
Thank you for holding His hand,
And thank you for being kind to us.

You are that new light,
That will further brighten my King’s World.
The World that two of you will nurture together,
In happiness, in love, with compassion, and with maturity.

My King has always made His people happy.
But by deciding to give us a Queen,
He has made us even happier,
And by choosing Ashi Jetsun Pema.

On this joyous auspicious occasion,
The gods and goddesses will come to Earth,
For Heaven then will be on Earth.
When our King will take his bride.

I wish I could express all the joy that’s in my heart.
Join my hands and smile a contented smile.
A smile like a smile at the end of reading a fairy tale,
  For I see and know the pair will live, ‘Happily Ever after’.

 

We cooperate with you if you deal us humanely

Last Sunday I was travelling back from Gelephu. I was shell-shocked, and more than that angry. At various checkpoints on the Gelephu-Thimphu highway, there were frequent inspections by regional immigration and police officials. I understand that the checking is for national security, but, we want the immigration and police officials to deal us humanely.

I dare say that the inspectors are giving brutal harassment to the travelers. Firstly, they didn’t announce the public extensively to carry the identity cards with them while traveling.  This is the reason many travelers are denied entry from the check points and harassed unnecessarily.

Secondly, there’s a need to knock down some manners in the police officials who are on inspections. They act and speak so rude to the passengers. They treat the travelers as criminals. We understand they’re doing all this for the security of our country. But ours is a civilized society. We cooperate with them if they deal us humanely.

Perhaps they think that only policemen are serving the Tsa-wa-sum. The truth is that we as citizens of this country also serve the Tsa-wa-sum. The reality is that we’re on different leagues of arm forces, civil servants, corporate employees, businessmen or framers.

Next time when we have such great event in our country, I suggest the MoHCA to inform the public in general extensively about the inspections. This kind of sudden inspection only arouses rues over public and mistreatments from the inspectors. And yeah, to the head of the RBP-better knock down civil attitude in your police officials and make them public-friendly.

Apolitical teachers only produce apolitical students

Teachers in Bhutan are civil servants. As civil servants, teachers (to uphold the higher moral integrity and as law abiding citizens) are obliged to remain apolitical. But how this contributes to the learning of school children to be well-educated and democratic youth citizens? 

Today, many teachers shy off when their students ask questions pertaining to politics (Tobacco Control Act, CDG, political funding, Gyelposhing land and lottery scam). Students, our children want to know all this, develop critical thinking. Well, this is embarrassing when teachers would respond to their students, “Shhh! We, as civil servants, are not allowed to talk on this.”

Similarly, I am a civil servant, not a teacher though. If my kids or my young nieces and nephews ask me about the political issues, should I run away from them or shout at them to keep shut. But, it is undeniably very unhealthy trend being taking root in our young democracy.

I understand and respect that the BCSR 2007 has for the civil servants to be neutral on politics. But by tightening shut the teachers and civil servants’ mouths, aren’t we blocking our young people from learning and more importantly depriving them from becoming effective and democratic citizens? Or are we just blatantly neglecting the voices of youth (considering inexperience), their right to information? Or are we just demolishing the youth’s bridge to be productive and responsible citizens in democratic Bhutan?

A delicious disgusting word

I am never at ease each time I utter this word. A Dzongkha word, unfortunately. Don’t be surprised! Je khenpo is the word I am talking about. In short, supposedly, we called it Je. Don’t laugh! I can anticipate your predictable reaction. For I know you would be giggling there. 

Je Khenpo or Je is the Head Abbot in Bhutan. But an unavoidable shame clinches me, uncomfortably though, because the thing (dirty) of men is explicitly reminded to me each time I utter or hear this word. Say you Je. Once more, say it out loud. Ermmm! Didn’t it remind you about that thing? Now you trust me I’m not a bluff. 

Am I blaspheming here? However, as our belief would have it, now I’d be dragged into an unpardonable sin for ridiculing this spiritual word. If you’re a staunch Buddhist, you can throw a swift punch on my face…spoil the geography and bring me back to consciousness. Enough said, right?

But you’re wrong if you’re thinking that I am an atheist or anti-Buddhist. I believe in an ideology of “impermanence”, “life after death”, “compassionate and responsible living”. But this word, Je, is the sexiest Dzongkha term for me and today nothing is stopping me from sharing this post with you. 

Suffice it to say, these two words have different spellings in the Dzongkha Dictionary, but both sound no different and they carry the same intonation to me. Guess what? When I have to say or talk about Je khenpo, I am always stuck in a dilemmatic situation. But listen here; I have a trick to fool my listeners. I always utter Je very swiftly, so that Khenpo can overtake it immediately. Like this, J’ Khenpo. Ha-ha!   

I blame myself for not taking genuine interest in learning Dzongkha language, but I can reason out that the language also do the justice to attract us. Much as I hated to admit it that Dzongkha lacks vocabulary, and we’re worrying the slow demise of our national language. Perhaps more tellingly, another word would duly assist my argument here. Again I have to sacrifice my principles. As you’d be anticipating, Jedha is the word that would justify your apprehensions. And I will tell you how Dzongkha lacks vocabulary through this word.

This is the most commonly used word by the people of all walks of life in Bhutan. I don’t know exactly what it means literally as no teacher or syllabus taught us about this word in the schools, but undoubtedly it carries almost identical connotation of an English word “Fuck”. In Dzongkha, jedha is used to express negative emotions. It is the only word to show our anger, pain, disappointment and frustration. In good old days perhaps our ancestors were never frustrated, angry or disappointed. So there’s no need of discovering words to describe these feelings.
 Now, unfortunately, jedha has to supplement all frustration, anger, hatred and depression that modernity has produced. Thanks to Jedha! 

Interestingly, it can be abbreviated as dha.   

This word is also used to greet friends, “Jedha! Nam hongyi tshey.” Also, we use this word to express surprise. A good example is here: “Jedha! Bum jarim dhu mey,” my friend would exclaim if I were dating a pretty girl. 

It can be also used as a “pause” word. “Khatsha, dha, nga, dha, taxi mathoba lakha tangyi, dha,” a boy would say to his friend when he has to explain that yesterday he had tough time finding a taxi.  

Very recently, I counted how many times I utter this word a day. Not surprisingly, huh, I uttered it 60 times. Once in the morning when I got up late from the bed, three times in my washroom, six times when I wear my gho, ten times when crossing traffics, 20 times to the Bhutan Telecom Ltd (slow internet and mobile network congestion), ten times to my bosses and ten times to my friends.  

My final observation, though bizarrely weird, has been that if jedha was a chanting mantra then every Bhutanese would accumulate enough merits and ascend to heaven. 

Apology: Say jedha to me if this post had terribly disgusted you!

A beautiful heart

How many of you ever thought of donating your organs for other? Or have you ever come across any such person?

Let me introduce you here a 19-year old woman who is willing to donate one of her kidneys. That’s also for free! Suffice it to say, she’s doing something quite out of the extraordinary to bring difference in other’s life.

Believe it!

                                  Pic: Yewong with Executive Director of BKA

Yewong Lhasel Wangmo is her good name. A divorcee and single mother of three-year old kid, she runs her own handicraft shop in the Paro Town. She is a Bumthap.

Just a week ago, she impressed me and all the committed members of the Bhutan Kidney Association (BKA). The BKA is a public benefit non-governmental organization (will be certified very soon) founded by Mr. Tashi Namgay (Executive Director), a civil servant and kidney transplant recipient since 2005. The young single mother smsed the Executive Director (ED):

I am Yewong Lhasel Wangmo from Paro and I am 19 years old. I got your phone number from Tandin Bidha's facebook page [film actor, also committed member of BKA] and I read about the Bhutan Kidney Association. I am very proud of you guys taking such a noble initiative-a big responsibility and helping others. I am also very much interested to help others so I just want to tell you guys that if there’s any kidney failure patient with B+ve blood group, let me know. I am always ready to donate one of my kidneys.

Amongst the members of the association, a sense of awe and homage was born that contained so much to admire Yewong’s unshakable devotion to donate her organ to help other.

After a few days, all the way from Paro, Yewong arrived at Changjiji in Thimphu to meet the Executive Director to assure the association that she’s genuine and that‘d virtually guaranteed her breakthrough decision to donate her organ. After their meeting, on the BKA facebook page, the ED wrote:

Today I met a wonderful human, Yewong Lhasel Wangmo. We had tête-à-tête for an hour about the current situation of the kidney-related issues in Bhutan. She is very confident to donate one of her kidneys. She is the first Bhutanese who volunteered and came to me for organ donation. And she left a message, "If anyone needs my kidney (B+ve) then please call me".

This message of hers is heavily weighted with an inexhaustible treasure-house of compassion and divinity. Perhaps more tellingly, there hasn’t the faintest ounce of hesitation in giving away her organ. She has inherited what has been pure and noble-the hugest of sacrifice, the greatest of inspiration.

Yewong is the pioneer who has demystified a hoodoo spell of Bhutanese being very reluctant to donate our organs. Her act of bodhisattva has now undoubtedly injected in our otherwise vaingloriously obsessed minds a fair dose of helping other altruistically, even with our own body parts. Because she already knew there are many who need our excess organs.

When asked what the intent behind donating her organ is, she replies, “Till now I haven’t done anything good, so now I want to do something which makes me feel proud  and  I want to save other’s lives . I would donate my kidney for free. Peace!” Also, she always encourages other to help those underprivileged and needy. She believes she is undone and won’t be happy until she could bring difference in other’s lives.

Long live Yewong!

A narrow escape!

I will never forget the harrowing experience of last evening. I narrowly escaped from the death’s jaw! Yes, I am talking about the 6.8 magnitude naka that hit Bhutan at 6:41 PM last evening.  

Let me report you my observation and my own experience from the place I stay. I live at Motithang in Thimphu, on the sixth floor of a yellow building. That moment, I was watching a BPL football match on TV in my bedroom. Tottenham’s Luka Modric scored a goal against Liverpool. I was celebrating the score with the team when my TV started shaking so hard. Novels from my shelf started falling down. My cosmetics started rolling here and there and things in the washroom hit the floor. It’s undeniably an earthquake, I reacted immediately.

Training had taught me to crawl under the table when you are hit by the earthquake, but I have only one living room centre table, that’s also glass one. I ran out of the apartment with my sister, barefoot and the door unlocked. Forget about the things in my apartment (which I bought with my last one year’s savings), forget about my parents and beloved ones, from the sixth floor of the building I ran for my life-downstairs, toward the ground. The building shook so thunderously that I felt that the building was running over the course of a rough road, in high speed. A riotous sound of unlikely colliding building was produced. Other tenants were crying, shouting for their kids and rushing downstairs. Some were crawling downstairs as the building shook heavily.

All of us were dumbstruck, nervous and lost.

Honestly speaking, I had only one thing in my mind, which is guaranteed undoubtedly. That before I reach the ground floor I would be smashed into the building’s crashes and become a dead log in a few seconds. I didn’t apprehend exactly how I reached the ground floor when the naka stopped after 12 seconds (approximately). It means within a dozen of seconds or even less I could run from the sixth to the ground floor. If I had this pace and stamina in the Olympic then I would have broken the record of the world’s fastest track runner, Usain Bolt.

Residents were considerably relieved after they could make on the ground. Every one in Motithang stayed outside, still hesitant to move in fearing aftershocks.

A rumour had it that again there’ll be “a more dangerous naka at 8:30 PM”. All the residents of Motithang waited outside till 9 PM expecting another shock. But rumour was always rumour, a false one. Another rumour had it that there’ll be a shock at 11 PM. Though raining intermittently, we stayed outside till midnight, some under the umbrella, car owners in their cars and other under the tree shades. Most of us never returned homes, we slept outside in our cars because yet another rumour said “there will be shake again”.

                                            
But what had disappointed me so bitterly last night was not that the naka shook us. As I watched the BBS TV for information, the lousy BBS proved it lousiest character yet again. Damn, instead of covering live news on the earthquake, it was telecasting LIVE Drungtsho programme. It carried no information on its footage other than the earthquake’s magnitude and its epicenter. And the host consoled the viewers, “Don’t panic!” But what we wanted that hour is not the moral consolation from a TV host but reliable sources speaking to us whether the rumours we had are true or not. We wanted our voices and concerns (like rumour) to be heard instantly through mass media. We wanted the RJs and TV journalists to visit the panicking public and reach our concerns to the concerned authorities right away, but until last night I knew how unconcerned and unprofessional they are.

Also, the home ministry and the department of disaster management showed their sheer ineffectiveness, unprofessionalism and unpreparedness in dealing with the natural disaster. In such incident they should have monitored arm forces in the crowded areas like Motithang, the town, Changjiji and Olakha to stop people from panicking and avoiding them from moving in until aftershocks are over. They should have used the radio stations, the TV and the mobile networks in disseminating the relevant information to the panicking general public immediately.